The Banshee Makers

Written by Ger Bourke, The Banshee Makers is the winner of the second Corcadorca Playwright Award. Its production at the Half Moon Theatre is directed by Pat Kiernan in a manner altogether too casual about pace or dramatic power. Time and place merge effectively: it is the early 1970s and three men of different ages work together in a coalyard (achieved with dreary conviction by Cliff Dolliver) and share unaligned reminiscences. Scooter (Joe Meagher) is the idiot savant, longing for a mother who will never come, recreating the womb in a litter of coalbags and sweltering with lust never likely to be slaked in this sodden riverside town.

The anger and sadness in this character are the focus of a play about waiting. What energy there is fuels the dialogue's litany of frustration: these are men of few words, and those are all taken from the same anal phrasebook. From this miasma Kiernan and the cast filter the few sharp images capable of defining a time when a whole generation was waiting for some thing to happen that hadn't already happened.

Donncha Crowley and Garry Murphy make up the rest of the trio, which is disturbed by the occasional appearances of Noirin Hennessy as Kathleen, the office girl anxious to experience some kind of life for herself. The idealised boat built by the men is a metaphor for escape, but its disappearance from the stage may be Bourke's way of saying that life was over for these people before it even began.

The Banshee Makers continues at the Half Moon until September 16th (to book, phone: 021-270022) and then tours to St Mary's Theatre, Rossmore, Co Cork, on September 19th; Ballyduff, Co Waterford, on September 21st; the School Yard Theatre, Charleville, Co Cork, on September 22nd; and Brewery Lane, Carrick-on-Shannon, from September 25th to 30th.